Transit riders see mostly see full busses & trains because they're riding the heavy-ridership routes through dense neighborhoods. People driving in spread-out n

Transit riders see mostly see full busses & trains because they're riding the heavy-ridership routes through dense neighborhoods. People driving in spread-out neighborhoods mostly see empty busses & trains because they see the busses mandated to serve sprawling neighborhoods to serve people who can't drive or to provide service to all of the transit system's tax base, even if those neighborhoods aren't built in such a way anyone would ride transit by choice. Here's a paper & a couple excellent blog articles on the topic: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966692308000586 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966692308... http://usa.streetsblog.org/2013/08/14/jarrett-walker-empty-buses-serve-a-purpose/ http://usa.streetsblog.org/2013/08/14/jarrett-walker-empty-b... http://www.humantransit.org/2009/12/yet-another-transit-isnt-green-because-of-empty-buses-story.html http://www.humantransit.org/2009/12/yet-another-transit-isnt... From the paper's abstract: "Public transport faces an increasingly intense conflict between patronage goals and coverage goals. Broadly speaking, patronage goals seek to maximize patronage of all types, while coverage goals lead to the provision of service despite low patronage – to achieve social inclusion objectives for example."